1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an organism collation method and apparatus utilized for confirmation of a person and so forth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various security systems which utilize organism information have been proposed. A fingerprint collation apparatus which is a representative one of such organism collation apparatus includes, for example, an information storage medium such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), an information inputting device such as a camera, and an information processing apparatus such as a computer.
In such a fingerprint collation apparatus as described above, a fingerprint pattern is registered as organism information of one human being in advance in the information storage medium, and the fingerprint pattern of a person to be collated is inputted by the information inputting device. Then, the inputted fingerprint pattern and the registered information pattern are collated with each other by the information processing apparatus, and if the two fingerprint patterns match each other, then it can be recognized that the person to be collated is the registered person.
It is to be noted that, in addition to such a fingerprint collation apparatus which makes use of a fingerprint pattern as organism information as described above, a voiceprint collation apparatus which makes use of a voiceprint, an iris collation apparatus which makes use of an iris pattern and so forth are available as organism collation apparatus. Further, organism collation apparatus are divided into a person confirmation apparatus and a person identification apparatus. The person confirmation apparatus is an apparatus wherein organism information only of a particular one person is registered in advance and collation of organism information is performed to confirm and specify the person. Meanwhile, the person identification apparatus is an apparatus wherein organism information of a plurality of persons is registered in advance and collation of organism information is performed not to specify a particular person, but to identify whether or not the particular person is included in the plurality of registered persons.
Such organism collation apparatus as described above are used, for example, with a security system for limiting the human beings who can access a particular area. Organism information is part of the person the, and is neither known to the others like a password nor may it be stolen or copied like a key. Therefore, a security system which employs an organism collation apparatus is higher in security than the other security systems.
However, actually it is not impossible to copy organism information, and it is possible to cause an organism collation apparatus to recognize copied information. For example, where the organism information is a fingerprint pattern, it is possible to produce a model of a finger of a registered person whose fingerprint is copied and cause an organism collation apparatus to recognize the finger. On the other hand, when the organism information is a voiceprint, it is possible to record the voice of a registered person and cause an organism collation apparatus to recognize the voice.
In order to solve such a subject as described above, a .fingerprint collation apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 175865/1986 collates information of a plurality of particular fingers in a predetermined order. Since the types and the order of the fingers to be collated are recognized only by the person concerned, the security of the fingerprint collation apparatus is higher than a fingerprint collation apparatus which effects only collation of a fingerprint.
However, with the fingerprint collation apparatus of the document mentioned above, since the types and the order of a plurality of fingers to be collated are set fixedly, security is not increased by a very high degree. Further, collation of a plurality of fingerprints in the order as described above makes collation operation complicated and requires much time.
In order to simplify the operation and reduce the collating operation time, the number of pieces of information to be collated should be reduced. However, this degrades part of security. Besides, if the person concerned should forget the order of the fingers to be collated, then even the person concerned is not able to cause the organism collation apparatus to recognize the person concerned.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an organism collation method and apparatus wherein the collating operation is simple and does not require much time and the security is high.
In order to attain the object described above, an organism collation apparatus of the present invention registers a plurality of pieces of organism information, which is different among different human beings and unique to the individuals, for different types determined in advance. Then, the organism collation apparatus selects at least one type at random from among the plurality of types of registered organism information, and indicates inputting of organism information of the selected type to a human being to be collated. Then, when organism information of the human being to be collated is inputted, the organism collation apparatus performs collation between the inputted organism information and the registered organism information in accordance with the selected type.
Accordingly, a person to be collated does not know the type of organism information to be collated till the point in time at which collation is performed. Consequently, an unrelated person who tries to mislead the organism collation apparatus to erroneous recognition must prepare a copy of all organism information in advance. However, since it is difficult to copy all the organism information of an unrelated person, the security in collation is increased.
Another organism collation apparatus of the present invention inputs and registers, when a plurality of pieces of organism information are to be registered in advance, the plurality of pieces of organism information in an order determined in advance. Accordingly, if a person to be collated inputs the plurality of pieces of indicated organism information in order into information inputting means, then the plurality of pieces of organism information inputted in this are collated by information collation means. Since the inputting of the plurality of pieces of organism information is executed in order, only one inputting device such as a CCD camera which forms the information inputting means is required.
Another organism collation apparatus of the present invention inputs and registers, when a plurality of pieces of organism information are to be registered in advance, the plurality of pieces of organism information at one time. Accordingly, if a person to be collated inputs the plurality of pieces of indicated organism information at one time into information inputting means, then the plurality of pieces of organism information inputted at one time are collated by information collation means. Since the inputting of the plurality of pieces of organism information is executed at a time, the operation of inputting organism information is simple and does not require time.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate examples of the present invention.